I really didn't know what to expect when I started out on the vegan diet plan, that is a diet 100% plant based. I knew why, in theory, it was the right one for me, but proving is to be true would involve paying attention to a lot of things I hadn't really paid attention to before.
One aspect that I didn't see coming was the reduced garbage output. Rarely does my trek to the city garbage container involve more than a small bag - a very small bag. My two cats actually contribute more to the garbage system than I do.
When I stop top think about it, it makes sense. Most of my veg are fresh and unwrapped. My grains - quinoa, rice, oats, flax seed etc - are bought in thin poly-bag packaging from Whole Foods on Kingsway. For convenience, much of the beans and chick peas I buy comes in tins. Berries often come in the infernal plastic clam-shell packaging. Both the tins and the plastic berry containers go into the recycling box, as do the fruit juice, soy and almond milk cartons. Being as all my foods are plant-based, anything not consumed by me can and is composted.
What doesn't go into my garbage bag are styrofoam meat trays with their ubiquitous absorbent pads and plastic and wax paper wrap from cheese, deli meats, bacon and the like. OK that may not sound like a lot, but taken meal by meal it adds up to more frequent trips to the city garbage container because that stuff won't sit in a bag in your kitchen for a week. Well if it did, you would know about it soon enough. Your nostrils would tell you.
So what does go into my garbage bag? Well a quick list of this week's bag shows numerous twist ties from bundles of spinach, kale, broccoli and the like, plastic wrap that some mushrooms (and for some reason celery) are marketed in, plastic security/sealing strips from vegan protein shake containers, some emptied bulk poly bags and...... yeah that's about it.
Is that normal for a vegan? I don't know. Seems to me it is a small difference. One I did not expect to make.
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